Film /
Mom and Dad Save the World

Edit Locked

"Today Marge Nelson becomes Marge Spengo! And all across the planet, our hearts will do the tango!"

Advertisement:

Mom and Dad Save the World is a 1992 film parody of Flash Gordon which stars Jon Lovitz, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Eric Idle, Thalmus Rasulala and other actors. Lovitz plays Emperor Tod Spengo, who is the cruel, silly and over-dramatic emperor of the planet named Spengo (which Spengo conquered and renamed after himself). Teri Garr plays Marge Nelson and Jeffrey Jones plays Dick Nelson, her husband.

Emperor Spengo, with General Afir at his side, takes over a small planet at the edge of the galaxy populated entirely by idiots, and renames it after himself. He orders that all the resources of the planet should be engaged to create his "Death Ray Laser". The laser's purpose is to destroy Earth, thus making Spengo the greatest planet in the Universe. When Emperor Spengo looks at exactly where his Laser would strike, he sees Marge Nelson exercising — and falls in love.

Advertisement:

Using his Magnobeam (a giant magnet), he kidnaps Marge and her husband Dick as they are on their way to a 20th-anniversary weekend. He hopes to make Marge his before he blows up the Earth. Dick and Marge get separated on Spengo, Marge is sent to the lap of luxury, waited on by small people with fish or dog heads, while Dick is thrown into a dungeon. Can Dick find his way back to Marge? Can the rightful king of Spengo retake his throne? What the hell were Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon smoking when they wrote this? Weed. Bales and bales of weed. So it's a Disney movie?

Marge: Todd... are you... insecure? Tod:(denial laugh) Hah! Me? Insecure? If I were insecure WHY WOULD I SPEAK SO LOUDLY? Hm? How about now, dear Marge? What do you think of me now?!

If you look at the plate on the wall which Dick and Marge stand in front of for a picture, it shows a "scale comparison" between the Sears Tower and Spengo's tower.

Ditto Aliens: Averted with the dog-men and fish-ladies, who possess differing fur/scale tones and patterns within their individual type. Marge is even able to recognize her guard from a fish-lady's family photo she'd seen earlier, and offer marriage counseling to help him get back together with his wife.

Face Palm: One of the Dog Guards during the "mutton chop" scene below.

Family-Friendly Firearms: The laser weapons are especially jarring since the planet's denizens themselves know and acknowledge that they are all idiots. On the other hand, they're so inaccurate that it's openly acknowledged in-universe that throwing a rock is more dangerous.

Fanservice: The entirety of the rebellious people, but especially Kathy Ireland. Not in the least because of her...

Fur Bikini: Worn by the female natives. The men wear loincloths are and mostly bare-chested as well.

Gender Equals Breed: It is implied that the bulldog-men and fish-ladies are members of the same species.

Like a Duck Takes to Water: Just like John Carter of Mars was able to use his comparatively Heavy Worlder physique to become a Martian Warlord, Dick Nelson is able to take the entire planet of Spengo by storm despite being your average suburbanite because he's the only person on the planet besides his wife who is not an idiot.

Only Sane Man: General Afir through most of the film, even when compared to Dick and Marge.

Paper-Thin Disguise: The rebels wear large bird costumes to avoid being spotted, even though there are no birds nearly that large on the planet. Given their opposition, it might have been a pretty effective tactic anyway.

Planet of Hats: Everyone on the entire planet of Spengo is a flaming idiot.

The rare example where the society knows it. "I'm the smartest one here, and I'm an idiot."

Though even they may be exaggerating. King Raff, when his intelligence is returned to normal, is able to speak in technical terms ("I have reversed the polarity of the Magno-Beam. I will return you to your planet forthwith and in great haste."), and General Afir is anything but stupid, though he could be the Only Sane Man. Even Spengo himself was clever enough to take over an entire planet, and occasionally speaks in technical terms himself.

Rock Beats Laser: Of course it does. The natives treat rocks like astonishingly advanced technology. It's justified given how terrible their laser weapons are; a thrown rock is more likely to actually hit the target.

Strangely enough, it isn't the "Pick Me Up" message which gets them to pick it up. Only the man who picks it up before the platoon leader makes the call reads it. The rest (it's implied) seem to fall from a chain of dialogue which causes the next man to pick it up. They're just that stupid.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Dick and Marge, showing slides after their trip, treat taking a pic of Saturn from their station wagon like they'd passed by the Grand Canyon. Dick thanks Marge for insisting he use the flash.

Wacky Sound Effect: The sound of a guard shooting himself in the head seems to involve the sound of a rubber duck.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy